15 January 2011

01.14-15.11 Update

Since Penelope got a whole day to herself yesterday, I'll start with Lydia's update.

Lydia - 1.210g (2lbs 7.50oz)

Lydia's day yesterday was focused on the most notorious thing about babies. Poopy diapers. For Lydia though, it was the lack of one. Since you've chosen to follow us on this journey, some things that you don't really want to discuss have to be discussed. Since her surgery she hadn't produced a nice poop yet, which the doctors actually care about! She was having some aspirate that was all milk so it was a sign that she wasn't digesting anything and it was just sitting in her stomach. The nurses look at weight, how much, what color all of that is the same as when you bring a new baby home, they watch as well. So that was the goal for Lydia yesterday. But near the end of the first shift though she hadn't really produced a deuce yet so she had to have a bit of "encouragement" from the nurses. She was given some medicine that, within due time helped pass the situation. She looked much happier after that and had little to no aspirate. Today she hasn't had any saggy britches but she's eating well with small amounts of aspirate again. Our continued concern is the NEC and obviously a well working digestive system to help her produce waste normally. Aside from that Bethany has been kangaroo caring with her every day for at least an hour to two which has been a wonderful experience for both of them! We're praying for continued stability and growth.

Penny - 860g (1lbs 7.90oz)

After the eventful day of surgery yesterday, Penny had a relatively uneventful evening. There have been a small number of speed bumps in the road to recovery that we're praying she will quickly be over. Some of the things that have happened today. This morning her culture from a few days ago revealed that she did in fact have an infection. Gram positive cocci that was identified as the common staph that they see here. The antibiotics that she is on though is a broad spectrum one that takes care of 99% of all bugs here in the NICU. It's so difficult to stay completely sterile here in the NICU. We scrub a good two minutes before coming in, we use foam alcohol between touching each baby to keep from cross contamination as well as after touching anything at all. Nurses use all new everything, gloves, masks, tubing, syringes and bedding when working with the girls. But even with all of that, there are germs everywhere that can get in to the body, especially since they have so many foreign objects running in to them. So the doctors will continue to watch the cultures that they took to see if they continue to grow anything.

Penny was moved from a traditional vent machine to an oscillator. Some see this as being a step back from the vent but the nurses feel it's more of a lateral step. Not worse, not better. The oscillator is a machine that continuously puffs air in to her lungs, causing the alveoli to stay inflated. With the traditional vent machine, imagine a balloon being blown up and released over and over. With time the balloon loses its flexibility and begins to look flabby and no longer taut. This is what the vent can do to the lungs as well as irritate the alveoli over longer periods of time which is not what they want! The hopes is to wean her off the oscillator over the next few days so it's really up to her to start using her lungs again and working to keep her saturation levels up. The edema around her lungs is still there and they are still administering the Lasix drug to help work that out.

01.15

Today, so far, has been relatively quiet.

Lydia has had a few apnea sessions which is more normal for her case but is still not digesting properly. The nurse just drew back around ten cc's worth of milk from her tummy so they will be holding feeds for three hours. (two left now)

Penny is being weaned off of the oscillator bit by bit and is now getting a tiny bit of milk to start her back on feeds.

Specific prayer requests for:

Penny to have less edema around her lungs and to start working her lungs more so she can be taken off of the vent all together.

Penny to fight off this infection.

Penny to start adjusting to feeds again and to start gaining more weight.

Penny to not have any issues with NEC.

Lydia to start digesting properly and to start making poops (weird but necessary!)

Lydia to be fully weaned off of O2 and to not need her nasal canula anymore.

Lydia to also not have any issues with NEC.

We're thankful for this calm day and are trying to catch up on some rest!